Pretended benevolence ecclesiastical sword of temporal power. Nor are your memorialists deluded by any professions of benevolent mo- no excuse. tives on the part of the petitioners. They recognize in those professions the common artifice of ecclesiastical ambition of that ambition which deceives only to destroy; which rears in its van the emblems of Results of meekness, charity, and philanthropy, and carries in usurpation. its train the engines of persecution, torture, and massacre; which commences with soothing flattery, and ends in a furious and brutalizing tyranny; which sweeps from its path every vestige of civil and religious liberty, and perishes at last (as perish it must) gorged with human blood, the victim of its own detestable depravity. Benevolence was the pretext of the papal tyranny and its sanguinary persecutions. The massacre of St. Bartholomew's, the butcheries of the Inquisition, and the atrocities without number which stain every page of the Christian annals, were all committed in the name of a merciful God, and through a zeal for the reform of his orthodox church. End of persecution. Pretexts of the past. True religion needs mental aid. The true religion of the mild and merciful Jesus, like her author, is meek and humble: she never not governaspired to earthly dominion, or sought aid from the arm of civil power; the scepter and the diadem of temporal sovereignty are as a brittle reed in her hands and a crown of thorns on her head. Relying All-powerful on her own excellences, she defies all human opposition, and spurns away the support of all human legislation, as a species of defense suited only to a false and bloody superstition. Your memorialists rely with implicit confidence on the wisdom and firmness of your honorable bodies in protecting the civil and religious rights of your memorialists and their fellow citizens from ecclesiastical encroachments. On motion of E. Ranson, Esquire, of Townshend, the foregoing memorial was unanimously adopted. in and of itself. Convention's resolutions. Natural rights. Religious authority not delegated. Unconstitutionality of RESOLUTIONS OF THE CONVENTION. The following resolutions reported by the committee appointed to draft the same, were unanimously adopted: Resolved, That all men have a natural and unalienable right to adopt such modes of worship and such a religious faith as their judgment shall dictate, and that no power is delegated to any legislative body in this country to contravene this right; and that any attempts to settle by law contested or disputed points of religious belief, or to enforce by legislative enactment a construction of the word of God, would be a gross violation of the rights. of conscience and a palpable infraction of the Constitution. Resolved, That all legislative enactments inproposed laws. tended to prohibit the transportation and opening of the mail on the first day of the week are opposed to the spirit and letter of that Constitution which forbids a preference of one religious sect over another, and guarantees equal rights and privileges to all. Christian party in politics dangerous. Colonel Johnson's re Resolved, That we discover with regret and alarm, in the indefatigable efforts of the Christian party in politics, the germ of that most horrible tyranny, the tyranny of priestcraft, which has for ages wrested from the nations of Europe those inestimable privileges, religious liberty and the rights of conscience. Resolved, That Colonel R. M. Johnson is entitled port approved. to the applause and gratitude of his countrymen for his bold and manly efforts in resisting the repeated attempts of the Christian party in politics in obtaining the passage of a law prohibiting the opening and transportation of the mail on the first day of the week, and for his able and talented reports against the prayer of the various petitions for the same. Vigilance committee Resolved, As the sense of this convention, that a committee of five be appointed, who shall be denomi- established. nated the Central Committee of Vigilance for the county of Windham, whose duty it shall be to call future meetings at such times and places as they shall deem expedient, and to correspond with like committees which now are or may hereafter be appointed in other counties in this State. In pursuance of the last resolution the following gentlemen were appointed a committee: Hon. John Roberts of Whitingham; General Aaron Barney of Guilford; Ebenezer Jones, Esquire, of Dover; Thaddeus Alexander, Esquire, of Athens; and Colonel William Ackerson of Rockingham. On motion of General M. Field, Committee appointed. Resolutions to congress Resolved, That our Senators and Representatives in Congress be requested to oppose the passage of men. any law prohibiting the opening and transportation of the mail on the first day of the week. Resolved, That the foregoing memorial and resolutions, with the proceedings of this convention, be signed by the chairman and secretary, and a copy thereof transmitted to Congress; and that like copies be transmitted to the editors of the "Boston Trumpet" and "Brattleborough Messenger," with a request that the same be published. ' S. P. SKINNER, Secretary. 1 ABNER PERRY, Chairman. 1 These resolutions went up from all parts of the country after the people saw the earnestness and importunity with which the Sundayists were pressing their claims. But both in that campaign and the campaign sixty years later, it was not until it seemed that Sundayism would be triumphant that the friends of religious liberty were aroused. There is sometimes danger that from mere indifference the freedom guaranteed by our fundamental charters will be taken away, and that minor religious sects of the country will suffer in consequence to what extent only time itself will show. Publication of resolutions 27, RESOLUTION CONCERNING THE DESE Nov. 27, 28, 1844. Members commended. CRATION OF THE LORD'S DAY BY CONGRESS.' NATIONAL LORD'S DAY CONVENTION, BALTIMORE, MARYLAND, NO- Resolved, That this Convention hereby respectfully of Congress tenders, to such members of Congress as have attempted to prevent the desecration of the Lord's day by the unnecessary extension of legislative action into Object of convention. 1" Proceedings of the National Lord's Day Convention held at Baltimore on the 27th and 28th of November, 1844," printed at the Publication Rooms of the Evangelical Lutheran Church, No. 7, South Liberty Street, Baltimore, Maryland, 1845, page 56. 2 This convention, assembled "to devise means for the promotion of the sanctification of the Lord's day," was held in the First Baptist Church in Baltimore, Maryland, November 27 and 28, 1844. It was attended by 1,711 delegates, from eleven different States, representing various Protestant churches, largely Presbyterian, Methodist, and Baptist, and a number of Sabbath associations. It was presided over J. Q. Ad by John Quincy Adams, Ex-President of the United States, Rev. Dr. ams presided Justin Edwards, of Massachusetts, being chairman of the standing committee appointed for the convention, and one of the leading spirits in it. A disturbing resolution. Twenty-six resolutions regarding the nature, object, and value of the Sabbath institution, and how best to secure Sabbath observance, were adopted; and "An Address to the People of the United States" on the subject, prepared, the same being signed, in behalf of the convention, by "John Quincy Adams, President." All went well until near the close of the convention, when Rev. H. A. Boardman, D. D., of Philadelphia, enquired whether a resolution submitted by him "touching the desecration of the Sabbath by Sabbath meetings in Congress," which had been referred to the standing committee, had been reported by them to the convention. The resolution as first prepared, read as follows: " Resolved, That this Convention express their deep regret that the Congress of the United States has, in repeated instances within the last few years, deemed it expedient to continue its sessions through the whole or a part of the Sabbath; and they record it as their deliberate conviction that the National Legislature should ab sacred time, its unanimous commendation; and further expresses the hope that similar efforts hereafter will be sustained by a majority of their honorable body. stain from this practice for the future." "Proceedings of the Convention," page 43. Dr. A. D. Eddy, explaining why the committee had not deemed it expedient to report the resolution, said: committee resolution inexpedient. "They did not deem it expedient to invite the action of the body upon it, because they understood the convention to be of such a Why character as rendered it inexpedient for them to present themselves before the world in conflict with the laws of their country, or as im- considered peaching the conduct of our national legislators. They understood this assemblage to occupy a position sublimely remote from all such conflicts. Our public representatives were responsible to the Constituition, to the laws, and to their own constituents. The committee did not feel themselves, or the convention, at liberty to impeach the conduct of the national Legislature." "Proceedings of the Convention," page 41. After the standing committee had been discharged, Dr. Boardman, urged by friends, he said, introduced his resolution again. This precipitated a lively and heated discussion, some desiring the resolution passed in disapproval of "the great national sin" of Sabbath desecration, and as a rebuke to "sin in high places; " others opposing it as an action which might involve the convention in a collision or controversy with the national Legislature." After four amendments and substitutes had been offered, the convention finally passed the resolution given at the beginning of this section, tendering its commendation to those members of Congress who had sought to prevent what they considered a desecration of the Lord's day in Congress, and hoping for similar conduct on the part of the majority of its members. One of the substitutes offered, but not adopted, doubtless revealed the paramount idea prompting this whole affair touching Congress and Sunday observance. It recommended "all legislative bodies, whether State or national, to give the sanction of their example to its observance by avoiding all ordinary settings for business on that day." This is why national Sunday legislation is wanted now -to give national sanction to Sunday observance, and to the practice of enforcing Sunday observance by law. The advocates of the theocratical theory of civil government are always watching for an opportunity to secure the power and influence of the state in religious affairs. Resolution re-intro duced. As finally passed. The idea prompting the reso lution. |